(228e) Spectroscopic and Transient Kinetic Analyses of Metal Catalysts for the Conversion of Oxygenates

Interest in the catalytic transformations of oxygenated molecules has increased recently because of the potential growth in biomass-derived chemical feedstocks. Thus, our group has investigated the oxidation and hydrogenolysis of polyols, the decarbonylation of carboxylic acids, and the coupling of short chain alcohols. In this presentation, our recent studies on the structure and catalytic performance of Fe, Cu and Co cations anchored in a nitrogen-containing carbon matrix for alcohol oxidation and alkane dehydrogenation will be compared to that of a standard supported Pt catalyst. In a second example, the catalytic reduction of carboxylic acids to alcohols and aldehydes over Pd-promoted silica-supported ReO_x will also be discussed. These two examples will be used to illustrate the importance of in-situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy and transient kinetic methods to probe new catalyst compositions and structures.